Chapter 7 - THE STORY BREAKS
By noon, reporters were outside Mary’s Diner.
By twelve-thirty, my nursing school had received six calls asking whether Emma Reed was actually Elizabeth Shaw.
By one, somebody had posted my parents’ death certificates online.
My old life did not collapse slowly.
It exploded.
Alessandro moved me into a private residence he owned in the Gold Coast.
I argued until Gabriel showed me photographs of three reporters and one man connected to Matteo waiting outside Liam’s apartment.
Then I stopped arguing.
The penthouse was enormous.
I hated it immediately.
There were floor-to-ceiling windows, marble counters, silent elevators, and enough space to remind me that Alessandro belonged to a world I had only ever served champagne inside.
He stood near the kitchen island while I stared at the skyline.
“You can stay somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“A secure house.”
“Owned by you?”
“Yes.”
“Then that isn’t somewhere else.”
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Liam arrived carrying three bags and the flash drive.
He refused to let Alessandro’s team touch it.
Instead, we connected an air-gapped laptop Gabriel provided.
The drive contained hundreds of encrypted files.
Liam spent four hours working through them.
Finally, one folder opened.
HALCYON.
Inside were spreadsheets.
Contracts.
Wire transfers.
Insurance policies.
And photographs.
The photographs were what silenced us.
My father meeting Vittorio inside a parking garage.
Patrick Carter photographing a man leaving Matteo’s office.
Vittorio arguing with Matteo outside a private hangar.
Then one final image.
A picture of my parents’ SUV taken two days before the crash.
Someone had circled the rear brake assembly.
Alessandro stared at the screen.
“That proves surveillance.”
“Not murder.”
Liam sounded bitter.
“But it gives us somewhere to start.”
Then another folder opened.
PERSONNEL.
The names inside were coded.
A1.
A2.
C4.
M7.
Except for one.
PATRICK CARTER.
Beside his name was a payment authorization dated two days before his death.
Five hundred thousand dollars.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Liam stopped breathing.
“No.”
The payment had been made from Halcyon to a company called North Shore Medical Consulting.
The listed purpose was CARDIAC MANAGEMENT.
Patrick had died from a heart attack.
Liam stood so abruptly the chair scraped backward.
“They killed him.”
Alessandro’s face darkened.
“We don’t know that yet.”
“Don’t tell me what we know.”
Liam pointed at the screen.
“My father spent twenty-eight years as a cop.”
“He had no heart condition.”
“Two days before he dies, Matteo’s shell company sends half a million dollars to a medical consulting company?”
“That is evidence.”
“It is not enough evidence.”
“You sound like a lawyer.”
“I sound like someone who wants Matteo convicted rather than warned.”
Liam turned away.
I grabbed his hand.
“We finish this.”
His eyes were wet.
“We finish it.”
A notification sounded on the laptop.
Another encrypted folder had unlocked automatically after the first files were accessed.
Its title contained only one word.
HEIRS.
Alessandro moved closer.
We opened it.
Inside were copies of family trust documents.
Vittorio’s will.
Corporate voting agreements.
Succession plans.
A highlighted clause showed that if Alessandro died without children, a controlling block of Vitali family shares would pass to the next eligible family trustee.
Matteo Vitali.
My skin went cold.
If Alessandro had a legal child, that clause changed.
His child would become the beneficiary.
Liam stared at me.
“That’s why the baby matters.”
Alessandro said nothing.
I looked at him.
“Matteo doesn’t just want the evidence.”
“No.”
May you like
His face became terrifyingly calm.
“He needs my child not to exist.”
